Over 1.7 Australian households have taken the opportunity to generate some of their own power and reduce both their electricity bills and carbon emissions by installing rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems on their homes. However, regulatory, technical, financial and organisational challenges have largely prevented Australia's growing number of urban apartment dwellers from accessing these benefits.

With the development of urban economy, the number of tall and supertall buildings is increasing. In order to provide better protection of lives and properties in case of fire, provision of residential sprinkler system should be considered as it is not a mandatory requirement for residential premises in many countries.

14% of Australians live in apartments, predominantly in urban centres, yet few of these have PV systems, despite high levels of PV deployment on separate and semi-detached residential buildings. Increased PV deployment on apartment buildings represents a valuable market opportunity for the PV industry, which would allow apartment dwellers to obtain the financial benefits of...

This article argues that redesigning the housing market and supporting deliberative development are the keys to achieving good, affordable apartments.

Urban consolidation policies in Australia presuppose apartments as the new dominant housing type, but much of what the market has delivered is criticised as over-development, and as being generic, poorly-designed, environmentally unsustainable and unaffordable.